The original Florida Avenue Bridge was removed in 2000 as a hazard to marine navigation and replaced with the current modern, steel structure which was completed in May 2005.

It was designed by Modjeski and Masters, Inc. and built by American Bridge with a total project cost of approximately $47 million.

The new bridge was primarily funded by the United States Coast Guard under a Truman-Hobbs appropriation.

[1] Most of the marine usage of the Florida Avenue site consists of towboat and barge traffic transiting from the Mississippi River, through the Corps of Engineer's Inner Harbor-Navigational CanalLock, then east following the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

A parallel, four-lane, vehicular only, is planned to be built just south of (toward the Mississippi River from) the Port of New Orleans' existing lift bridge by the Louisiana State Department of Transportation and Development.